


Digby

by Medie



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-23
Updated: 2010-02-23
Packaged: 2017-10-07 12:26:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It didn't exactly make CNN, but it made the front page of the Digby Courier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Digby

**Author's Note:**

> written for [](http://seimaisin.livejournal.com/profile)[**seimaisin**](http://seimaisin.livejournal.com/) for my Birthday Drabble-A-Thon.

All sorts of things drift in on the tide. The bay was world-renowned for the height of its tides but rarely did what came in on them make the news. One morning, that changed. It didn't exactly make CNN, but it made the front page of the Digby Courier the day one of its residents found a body on the beach.

"Oh come on now, Madelyne," Agnes thumped her cane on the floor and gave the young woman an indignant look. "If the man's unconscious, I don't see the harm in taking a little look-see."

"Well I do," Maddy shot back, folding her arms across her chest and looking stubborn. "The poor thing is half dead from shock, he nearly drowned. The doctor's not in the habit of turning patients into tourist attractions and I'm inclined to agree with him." Moving away from the door, she hooked a hand around the elderly woman's arm and gently – but persistently – guided her toward the door. "Now you get on home and make sure Emma puts that cream on _after_ your bath. It's not going to do you a bit of good if it gets washed off in the tub."

"But it smells something dreadful," Agnes protested. "I smell like the tar pits in Sydney when I wear it."

Maddy swallowed a laugh, wisely hiding her amusement. "You do not," she assured. "But there's something in there for that too. Just have Emma mix it in before she applies it and, I promise, you'll smell as fresh as a daisy."

Stopping at the door, Agnes squinted at her. "Don't think I don't know you're rushing me out of here."

"Never thought you didn't," Maddy beamed a polite smile. "Have a good afternoon Agnes." She closed the door firmly and turned around, slumping against it. "You're turning out to be more trouble than you're worth, you know."

She looked over to see him sitting on a chair, magazine in hand. He managed a wan grin. "Not the first time I heard that one."

Shaking her head, Maddy locked the door and went back to the receptionist's desk. "Fine time for Lois to go into labour," she complained, shuffling through the papers. "I'm a med student, not a press agent."

'John' stood up and crossed the room, Maddy watching his approach with a critical eye. He was moving better, though still stiff, and the limp had faded to the point of imperceptibility. "They're still calling?"

"Nothing like a mystery man to liven up a languishing grapevine," Maddy tossed the messages down. "You're the best excitement some of these people have had in years. Unnamed man shows up naked in the bay? That's good for _weeks_ of speculation. Especially when he refuses to give his name or make any effort to help the Mounties identify him."

He grinned again. "Still think I'm an axe murderer?"

"No, they've moved on to mentally ill genius of some sort. You know, like that piano guy that turned up in England?"

"He was a hoax," 'John' said.

Maddy smiled slowly. "So are you." Like she had with Agnes, she grasped his arm, guiding him along. This time she walked him deeper into the clinic, to the room he'd been staying in. "You know full well who you are," she told him. "I can see it every time I look at you."

"Yeah?" He looked at her. "How's that?"

"The eyes," she said. "I've treated amnesiacs before. They all had this look in their eyes that's hard to explain. Not quite lost, not quite frustrated, but _something_." She poured a glass of water and waited for him to sit down before handing it over along with his meds. "You know who you are, you just don't want to."

"Maybe," he said, mouthing the pills and gulping the water. "So, what, you're just waiting for me to tell you?"

She shrugged. "If you want to, I'm not going to hold my breath. Whatever put you on that beach, it had to be nasty. You were a mess the night they brought you in here, babbling all kinds of nonsense that no one could pick any sense to."

Alarm flashed through his gaze for a moment, just like did anytime she made any mention of it. "What'd I say?"

"I don't really remember," Maddy told him honestly. "We were a little preoccupied with stabilizing you to think about taking notes. You did ask for somebody named Nathan but that's all that I can really recall offhand."

"Maybe someday I'll tell you," he said quietly. "Just, not now, okay? I just – I can't."

He looked away and she sighed. "You don't have to tell me anything, John. I'm not a psychiatrist and I'm not a priest." Maddy smiled ruefully. "I'm just a medical student working in her granddaddy's clinic."

Standing up, she patted him on the shoulder and turned away. "Though, if you do feel like you're in the mood to make a few revelations? How about you explain why you're pretending to still be injured when, I'm guessing, you've been okay since the morning after you got here?" She looked back, a hint of a grin on her face. "I'm getting tired of giving you pills that you're pretending to take."

He grinned back at her, "Same reason why you keep shorting out equipment when you're upset." Leaning back in his chair, he folded his arms, grin widening as she looked at him in shock.

"I'm not the only one keeping secrets around here, Doc."


End file.
